The new Missouri Valley Western

[MVW]

I really appreciate your taking the time to diagram it for me, Gary. But I'm afraid I still don't get it. In your arrangement, how would you pull a cut of cars out of A/D? You'd have to run out onto the track behind the roundhouse, right? Same for anything going from class to A/D. And I don't think that will work for me.

I'm envisioning that track as the mainline, and I think using it as a yard lead would really put a crimp in the traffic flow. Or am I misinterpreting?

(I'll post a bit tomorrow on what I'm envisioning for operations. If I read you right, I'm probably shooting for too much traffic to tie up the main frequently. But we'll see.)

Jim

[GaryHinshaw]

I think you are interpreting it correctly.  My picture of the yard flow is that arriving trains are pulled out of the a/d yard onto the main (once) and pushed into the class yard to be broken down offline.   Vice-versa for departing trains: the class switcher pulls the train out onto the main and pushes it into the departure yard where road power and a caboose are added.   If the main is off limits for this move, then this scheme won't work.  I have a sense that transferring trains in 3 cuts could get somewhat tedious and might create a bottleneck, but I'm not sure.  Fun to think about though.

[MVW]

Yep, it is fun to think about. And your suggestion may end up being the best solution, Gary. I hadn't considered it as an option, but I am now.

The determining factor will likely be the traffic flow. I need to nail that down.

So ... to make sure we're all on the same page, here's a quick rundown of what the layout is supposed to represent.

The Missouri Valley Western is a fictional bridge route between the UP and the Chicago & North Western, set in about 1954 in southwest Iowa.

In real life, there were two shortlines that were folded into the C&NW around the turn of the century — the Sioux City & Pacific and the Fremont, Elkhorn & Missouri Valley. In my world, those two lines merged to avoid being gobbled up by the C&NW, and acquired another real-life line that went under (the Council Bluffs & St. Joseph) to gain a gateway to Kansas City.

I'm modeling the Cedricsburg Division, with the fictional Cedricsburg located about where the real-life city of Denison, Iowa, is — 70 miles east of Omaha and 80 miles west of Boone, Iowa.

In 1954, this stretch would have seen nearly a dozen Streamliners a day: the "City" trains (Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver, Portland) as well as the Challenger and a couple C&NW passenger trains. Moving a stream of general merchandise trains (and a way freight or two) through a flow of crack passenger and priority freight trains is the operational purpose of the layout.

In real life, the C&NW had double tracked the entire line from Chicago to Council Bluffs. For reasons you can imagine, I've opted to keep it a single main.

More soon about the lineup of trains I'm envisioning.

Jim

[C855B]

... In 1954, this stretch would have seen nearly a dozen Streamliners a day: the "City" trains (Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver, Portland) as well as the Challenger and a couple C&NW passenger trains. ...

That level of priority, high-speed traffic would be too intense for a single-track line. By the time a general-merchandise freight manages to claw its way out of a siding, it's out on the main just in time to get put into the next one.

...In real life, the C&NW had double tracked the entire line from Chicago to Council Bluffs. ...

Yup. There you go.

[MVW]

Fortunately, nothing says I have to model all of the traffic that would have been found in that time and place. I only have to model enough to make it challenging given the constraints of time, money, physical space and crew size. The key is flavor, not uber fidelity.

Others may have different aims. That's cool. These are mine.

Jim

[MVW]

Updated track plan, with caboose track as per Mike's suggestion, and with the bump out showing the real length of the left drill track.

West staging is also shown in its temporary location, although by temporary I mean 1-2 years.



Jim

[MVW]

Here's an example of what I mean about scaling back traffic to fit the layout. Here's a table of real-life passenger trains that would have passed through Denison, Iowa. (Two fictional trains also included; in addition, Nightingale and North American wouldn't have been routed through here.) Info is from a Jan. 1, 1954, timetable.

12:09 am     105   City of Portland
12:50 am     108   Challenger
1:33 am     101   City of San Francisco
1:45 am     112   City of Denver
1:48 am     103   City of Los Angeles
3:55 am     104   City of Los Angeles
4:07 am     102   City of San Francisco
4:16 am     106   City of Portland
5:29 am       26   San Francisco Overland
6:30 am       14   Rapid City-CRex (actual Omaha arrival)
7:46 am       23   Gold Coast
9:39 am     201   Nightingale (calc from distance SC-CRex)
10:10 am       14   Chicago Express
10:17 am     204   North American (calc from distance SC-CRex)
11:30 am     111   City of Denver
12:15 pm        ?   CRex-Kansas City
3:44 pm     107   Challenger
6:45 pm          ?   Kansas City-CRex
7:56 pm       13   Chicago-Omaha
8:18 pm     203   North American (calc from distance SC-CRex)
9:58 pm       24   Gold Coast
10:32 pm     202   Nightingale (calc from distance SC-CRex)
11:30 pm       13   CRex-Rapid City  (actual Omaha departure)
11:41 pm       27   San Francisco Overland

Even if a guy had the space for a double tracked layout, and a large enough operating crew, it would be difficult to afford all the motive power and cars to model this level of traffic. (Of course if you could afford it, you could probably afford to buy a few extra friends, too.  )

I'm hoping to be able to model the trains shown in bold, although that could certainly change as the plan comes together and reality sets in.

Keep in mind there will likely be additional locals and maybe some commuter action.

Unfortunately, the only "City" train that would have passed through during daylight hours was the Denver in late morning.

The plan is to have a single trainset serve as more than a single train. For instance, a single COLA set can serve as its namesake as well as the Challenger. I think four different sets could serve as all 12 trains shown in bold.

Jim

[MVW]

Latest update to the track plan, and first draft for the industrial district in west Cedricsburg.



I've decided to go with Peco turnouts, and updated the plan accordingly. I juggled yard capacity with the length of the drill tracks, and here's where I ended up: Maximum train length will likely be around 25 cars, and the longest trains should be able to be broken down or built in two cuts.

I changed the arrangement of some turnouts to alleviate what could have been a nasty "S" curve in the yard.

"West" Cedricsburg will feature five rail-served industries:

A) Generic

B) A half-dozen structures and four tracks will make up Armstrong meat packing plant (whole area is denoted by yellow blob).

C) Another half-dozen structures and two tracks comprise Clinton Cereal Co (the smaller yellow blob).

D) Generic

E) Grain elevator

A commuter platform is shown alongside the passing track just above Clinton Cereal (C).

Constructive criticism is welcome.

I'd like to start getting the mainline down on the peninsula. I thought that would happen over Christmas break, but things happened.

Jim

[C855B]

... I'd like to start getting the mainline down on the peninsula. I thought that would happen over Christmas break, but things happened.

Hey, I'd like to have started getting mainline down two years ago, so there you go.

I see you've designated all three tracks of the west loop for staging. Is this your operating vision, that once a train makes it to the loop, it gets parked and something else leaves? Adding the passing siding in Town 1 makes sense, especially if you have an operations "oops" with staging full.

My main question about staging - mind you that I'm not staging-oriented as yet - is whether you are simply parking trains in the staging area, or plan to make/break trainsets in that area with the 0-5-0. If the latter, the loops are going to prove vexing, as is the limited amount of personal space. If you have an operator working the main yard with something on the right-hand drill track and somebody else working with staging, they're going to be bumping butts. I had to scrap an entire yard on the GC&W plan because too many potential operators were going to be tripping over each other in a disproportionately small space, at least relative to the rest of the layout.

[C855B]

Oooo... something else I noticed... you said "commuter platform". Where are those commuters going to park? Maybe delete the center road and move the cereal plant to the right, extending the main road with a curve to meet the commuter station and then on to the cereal plant.

[MVW]

I'll definitely play with changes around the commuter platform.

Great question on staging too, Mike. Fortunately, I'm envisioning staging as a parking lot, rather than a fiddle yard. A train may enter staging and later return as a different train during the same session, but there will be no shuffling of consists or motive power in staging.

In the long run, that won't change, but there's a pretty good chance west staging will be moved out of the room entirely.

You see how the track at the bottom of the diagram does a 180 and bumps into the wall? The idea is to cut through the wall there and place east staging in the adjacent utility room. And I kind of suspect I'll end up stacking west staging directly below east staging in that same spot. Hopefully, there will even be room to add a fourth loop around each staging yard.

There's an adjacent work bench in the utility room that would make an ideal dispatcher's desk, and plenty of room for a staging yard attendant, as well.

Jim

[MVW]

As per Mike's suggestion, I played with the industrial area around the commuter platform. Plenty of room now for parking, as well as maybe a mixed-use structure or two.



I've been locating the mainline around the end of the peninsula, and hope to get some roadbed and track down this weekend.

Jim

[MVW]

Well, I guess I'm due for my semi-annual update. 

Things have been happening. Construction started on the peninsula around the first of the year. At this point, I only need to add 4-5 sections of track to begin some rudimentary operations.

The west end of the three-track A/D yard and drill track is in.





Here's the view from what will eventually be the east end of the yard:





The back side of the peninsula includes the West Cedricsburg industrial area, which includes five rail-served businesses and a commuter stop.



The largest industry on the layout is the Armstrong meat packing plant, mocked up below:





Main order of business at this point is to get the last few sections of track down, then enjoy some stripped-down operations for a while to make sure the trackwork is shipshape. (Everything that's down is wired and ready to go; there are feeders to every section of track.) I'm still hoping to get most of the top level in this year, but we'll see. At any rate, most efforts over the next several months will be directed toward adding operation, rather than cosmetic.

So far, I'm lovin' the Peco turnouts. I even used a fair amount of Peco flex, just to try something new.

Jim

[C855B]

Actual layout construction. I'm jealous.

[MVW]

I had less prep work than you. Mine consisted of flipping on a light switch. 

Jim